Given the importance of a free press and the direction of the much- loved John Stewart, you just wanted this movie to be more entertaining or, at least, thought-provoking. Unfortunately, it produces both in somewhat limited quantities. Stewart, who clearly does snark on an Olympic-level does excel here at showing the ridiculousness of the Iranian charges against the Time reporter they imprison, beat and torture. He shows the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regime to be petty, out-of-touch and trying to stay in power by fighting the previous overthrow of the Iranian government which did involve the involvement of the West to install the former Shah of Iran. Of course, covert CIA operations have long since been replaced by the coordinated actions of ground-level young people using Twitter and the deep web to coordinate. Stewart demonstrates these realities well and provides a realistic portrayal of the tactics used by these particular torturers (which resemble those used by torturers through history and geography). The movie just feels more like reportage than drama and the reporters eventual release isn't quite the end of "Shawshank Redemption". In short, still worth seeing if you enjoyed "Syriana" or a have a particular interest in global politics or history.
Review of Rosewater
